This invention relates to an improvement of an apparatus for polishing the end face of an optical fiber connector.
An optical fiber connector is used to optionally join two optical fibers in the field of optical communications or optical sensors. In joining the optical fibers, the end face of each optical fiber is machined into a substantially convex surface at the work site, in order to minimize the optical loss of joint. In this case, the optical fiber connector is polished as follows: First, the end face of the optical fiber connector is polished into a conical surface, and then the vertex portion of the conical surface is polished into a spherical surface.
Such an optical fiber connector polishing apparatus has been disclosed, for instance, by Japanese patent application (OPI) No. 34762/1987 (the term "OPI" as used herein means an "unexamined published application"). In the apparatus, while a polishing plate is being rotated at high speed, an optical fiber connector is swung in a reciprocation mode while being rotated. However, the conventional apparatus is a theoretical one having no functions which are required for practical use.
When the polishing apparatus of this type is used at the site of installation, it is essential that the apparatus is small in size and light in weight, that is, it is high in portability, and it can polish optical fiber connectors with high precision, and that a drive source can be readily obtained for it.
Japanese patent application (OPI) No. 192460/1986 has proposed a convex surface polishing method in which an optical fiber connector rotating in a reciprocation mode, while being pushed against a elastic polishing board rotating at high speed, is swung along the polishing surface. However, the method is merely theoretical, not proposing an apparatus for practicing it.
In addition, the above-described conventional polishing apparatus has almost all the functions necessary for practical use; however, it is still disadvantageous in that the optical fiber connectors polished thereby are not uniform in spherical radius, in centering, and in length; that is, the apparatus is not stable in polishing accuracy.